Also highly recommend the XLO test CD. Worth it for the demagnetizing tracks alone. One sweep track, one bass fade. Seems like it could never work. Hearing is believing.
What’s going on? How does magnetization work? How does demagnetization work? Both work the same way. Magnetic fields can cause ferrous metals to align with the field. As kids back in the day (before schools traded in education for indoctrination) we used to all do this fun experiment where we would use a magnet to magnetize stuff. Hold the magnet real close, rub back and forth a little, your paper clip or whatever would get magnetized.
High end cables are deliberately made from materials that resist this. Nevertheless they are not perfect. Nothing ever is. Tiny magnetizable pockets exist. As these regions become magnetized they interfere with the signal.
Music signals vary constantly with big extremes of power at different frequencies that are exactly what you would do if you wanted to magnetize something- expose it to a powerful magnetic field and then take that field rapidly away. Just like the experiment, only this time the signal in the wire instead of outside. But exact same thing.
One way to demagnetize, expose the part to a powerful alternating magnetic field, then gradually reduce the intensity of the field. Tape head demagnetizers work this way- turn em on, bring em real close, gradually pull away.
This is great if you have the Radio Shack Bulk Tape eraser like I do, and can get at the stuff you want to demagnetize. What about voice coils? Wires inside components? For that you run the XLO tracks, which consist of a powerful bass frequency that gradually fades out, and a sweep tone that slowly goes up in frequency, demagnetizing everything in the signal path as it goes. The improvement is easily heard and quite impressive.
While I know from the messages I get there are people who come here to learn and appreciate such highly informative posts as this, evidently there are others who come here for other reasons and it irks them no end. Tough.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled schoolyard taunts pissing contests.
